'Hurt Locker' opens window on Iraq

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These days, EOD teams use robots nearly all the time to neutralize explosives. In the movie, a robot makes just one fairly feeble appearance in the opening scene.

The screenwriter for the film — which takes its name from the gray box in which a team member’s personal effects are stored — was Mark Boal, who was an embedded reporter in Iraq for Playboy in 2004. He has also written the story for the message-heavy “Valley of Elah,” which earned Tommy Lee Jones an Oscar nomination.

If there’s anything that the filmmakers overemphasized, it is the aftereffects. Busseau said — with a roll of his eyes — that everyone in the film seemed to have post-traumatic stress disorder, but it’s hardly universal.

Despite any quibbles, the film is being embraced by the EOD community, which is pleased to bring some attention to its little-known heroes. The website for the Pentagon’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, the special group set up to scope out new mine-defeating technology and lead detective work in Iraq, is linking to reviews of the movie.

The EOD Memorial Foundation fielded a call from the film’s promotion department asking if it would want to use it as a draw for donations, an offer O’Neil didn’t refuse. He said the foundation sees the movie as a way to promote the sacrifice of its 4,000 specialists, whose death toll was again on the rise.

“We’ve lost close to 50 people,” O’Neil said, recalling the heroism of men like Marine Sgt. John Fry, who did have to wear the bomb suit in his attempt to save a retarded child with IEDs strapped to his chest. And those are the kinds of people who join EOD, O’Neil said. “We’re very committed to our purpose.”

After dipping to a low of six in 2008, seven have died so far this year, O’Neil said. Now that the number of blasts has declined in Iraq, it’s on the upswing in Afghanistan, and EOD teams remain in demand.

Though this film celebrates bravery and duty, the guys from the 20th Support Group don’t expect it to be a recruiting flick for explosive ordnance specialists — nor do they recommend it as pre-deployment viewing for first-timers.